IU Northwest News

IU Northwest offers local students the opportunity to earn micro-scholarships via new Raise Me initiative

By logging achievements, high school students can guarantee a scholarship towards tuition at IU Northwest

Friday Aug 02, 2019

“I love this initiative because it encourages students to work hard in high school starting freshman year, and the rewards are tangible right away.

"The process also shows students that education is more than just performance in the classroom. They receive rewards for activities that will make them well-rounded students, and ultimately, successful college students.”

Candace Rayburn, Admissions Counselor

Indiana University Northwest is proud to announce a new financial incentive designed to help traditional incoming students start earning scholarship dollars as early as ninth grade.

Beginning in the fall of 2020, the Office of Admissions will begin awarding micro-scholarships promised to applicants via the RaiseMe platform once they are formally admitted to the university. RaiseMe is an incentive program that enables more than 250 participating universities to assign monetary values to achievements and college-readiness activities achieved while in high school or community college. The only requirement to begin earning rewards and claiming them upon admission, is graduating with a 3.0 grade point average.

To participate, students need only create an account at Raise.me and log their achievements dating back to ninth grade.

For those who intend to enroll at IU Northwest for the fall 2020 semester, students must complete their RaiseMe portfolio by November 15, 2019 and be admitted to IU Northwest by December 1 to be eligible for their scholarship. Once enrolled, the total amount a student earns is divided and allocated equally per year as long as the student maintains a 2.8 GPA.

The list of rewardable activities includes things like good grades for challenging courses and high test scores, for instance, but also non-academic activities that contribute to college-readiness, such as community service, athletic achievements, leadership, work experience, and taking a campus tour.

The individual rewards vary by activity and by college. One Advanced Placement (AP) course with stellar grades might yield up to $300 per course at IU Northwest. Activities such as participating in a sport, or holding a part-time job, might yield up to $320 at IU Northwest. A hearty collection of activities that serve to build a well-rounded and college-ready student can potentially amount to thousands at the end of four years.

Students can use the site to follow their top-choice colleges and keep track of the scholarship dollars those institutions would reward them upon admission, a feature which also serves to nudge them to pursue and check off those preferred activities as they progress through high school.

Candace Rayburn, admissions counselor, said this incentive is more than just a merit-based scholarship. It also helps students set their sights on becoming college-ready early in high school.

“I love this initiative because it encourages students to work hard in high school starting freshman year, and the rewards are tangible right away,” Rayburn said. “The process also shows students that education is more than just performance in the classroom. They receive rewards for activities that will make them well-rounded students, and ultimately, successful college students.”

To learn more about IU Northwest’s RaiseMe initiative, and begin recording achievements, visit iun.edu/raiseme. Parents and students can set up a free account.